In 1807-8 appeared anonymously Sydney Smith's _Letters on the Subject of
the Catholics to my brother Abraham who lives in the Country_, by Peter
Plymley.
Abraham is said to be a "kind of holy vegetable" and to be a type of
people who were exclaiming:--"For God's sake, don't think of raising
cavalry and infantry in Ireland! . . . They interpret the Epistle to
Timothy in a different manner to what we do!"
Sydney points out (in his character of Peter Plymley) that the "Catholic
is excluded from Parliament because he will not swear that he disbelieves
the leading doctrines of his religion!"
He refers to Perceval in the following passage: "What remains to be done
is obvious to every human being--but to the man who, instead of being a
Methodist preacher, is, for the ruin of Troy, and the misery of good old
Priam and his sons, become a legislator and a politician." Sydney
continues: "I say, I fear he will ruin Ireland, and pursue a line of
policy destructive to the true interests of his country: and then you
tell me he is faithful to Mrs Perceval, and kind to the Master
Percevals!"
Finally Peter warns his brother:--"Mrs Abraham Plymley, my sister, will
be led away captive by an amorous Gaul; and Joel Plymley, your first
born, will be a French drummer."
I regret that I have not space to quote more from these admirable
_Letters_, which are full of good things. On 14th July 1807, he writes
to Lady Holland {186}:--"Mr Allen has mentioned to me the letters of a Mr
Plymley, which I have obtained from the adjacent market-town, and read
with some entertainment. My conjecture lies between three persons--Sir
Samuel Romilly, Sir Arthur Pigott, or Mr Horner, for the name is
evidently fictitious." I presume that Pigott was an eminently serious
person to match the other supposed authors.
JEFFREY, 20_th Feb._ 1808.--"Your Catholic article of the last Review is,
I perceive, printed separately. I am very glad of it: it is excellent,
and universally allowed to be so. I envy you your sense, your style, and
the good temper with which you attack prejudices that drive me almost to
the limits of insanity."
He writes to Lady Holland in an early but undated letter (ii., p. 39)
that he has let his house at Thames Ditton very well, and sold to the
tenant his wine and poultry!--"I attribute my success in these matters to
having read half a volume of Adam Smith early in the summer, and to hints
that have dropped from Horner, in his playful moods, upon the subject of
sale and barter."
LORD HOLLAND, 1_st Nov._ 1809.--Speaking of his project of publishing a
pamphlet to be called Common Sense for 1810, he concludes: "But what use
is there in all this, or in anything else? Omnes ibimus ad Diabolum et
Buonoparte nos conquerabit, et dabit Hollandium Domum ad unum corporalium
suorum, et ponet ad mortem Joannem Allenium."
LADY HOLLAND, _June_ 1810.--"You have done an excellent deed in securing
a seat for poor Mackintosh, in whose praise I most cordially concur. He
is a very great, and a very delightful man, and with a few bad qualities
added to his character, would have acted a most conspicuous part in
life."
LADY HOLLAND, 17_th Jan._ 1813.--There had been meetings on the Catholic
question, and he says:--"I shall certainly give my solitary voice in
favour of religious liberty, and shall probably be tossed in a blanket
for my pains."
JOHN ALLEN, 24_th Jan._ 1813.--"My fancy is my own: I may see as many
crosiers in the clouds as I please; but when I sit down seriously to
consider what I shall do upon important occasions, I must presume myself
rector of Foston for life."
JOHN MURRAY [of Edinburgh], 12_th July_ 1813.--"My situation is as
follows:--I am engaged in agriculture without the slightest knowledge of
the art; I am building a house without an architect, and educating a son
without patience. . . . My new mansion springs up apace, and then I
shall really have a pretty place to receive you in, and a pleasant
country to show you."
LADY HOLLAND, 17_th Sept._ 1813.--"Few events are of so little
consequence as the fecundity of a clergyman's wife; still your kind
dispositions justify me in letting you know that Mrs Sydney and her
new-born son are both extremely well."
JOHN ALLEN, 13_th Jan._ 1814.--Of Lord Holland, Sydney writes:--"I wish
he would leave off wine entirely, after the manner of the Sharpe and
Rogers school. He is never guilty of excess; but there is a certain
respectable and dangerous plenitude, not quite conducive to that state of
health which all his friends most wish to Lord Holland."
JEFFREY, _Mar._ 1814.--"Pray remember me, dear Jeffrey, and say a good
word for me if I die first. I shall say many for you in the contrary
event."
LADY HOLLAND, 25_th June_ 1814.--"I liked London better than ever I liked
it before, and simply, I believe, from water-drinking. Without this,
London is stupefaction and inflammation. It is not the love of wine, but
thoughtlessness and unconscious imitation."
JEFFREY, 1814.--"I like my new house very much; . . . but the expense of
it will keep me a very poor man, a close prisoner here for my life, and
render the education of my children a difficult exertion for me. My
situation is one of great solitude, but I preserve myself in a state of
cheerfulness and tolerable content, and have a propensity to amuse myself
with trifles."
F. HORNER, 1816.--Referring to Dugald Stewart's _Preliminary
Dissertations_, Sydney says:--"I was amazingly pleased with his
comparison of the Universities to enormous hulks confined with
mooring-chains, everything flowing and progressing around them. Nothing
can be more happy."
LADY HOLLAND, 31_st July_ 1817.--"It is very curious to consider in what
manner Horner gained, in so extraordinary a degree, the affections of
such a number of persons of both sexes--all ages, parties, and ranks in
society; for he was not remarkably good-tempered nor particularly lively
and agreeable; and an inflexible politician on the unpopular side. The
causes are, his high character for probity, honour, and talents; his fine
countenance; the benevolent interest he took in the concerns of all his
friends; his simple and gentlemanlike manners; his untimely death."
LADY MARY BENNETT (_n.d._, but late in 1817).--"The few words I said of
Mrs Fry . . . were these:--'To see that holy woman in the midst of
wretched prisoners,--to see them calling earnestly upon God, soothed by
her voice, animated by her look, clinging to the hem of her garment, and
worshipping her as the only human being who has ever loved them . . . or
spoken to them of God!--this is the sight which breaks down the pageantry
of the world,--which tells us that the short hour of life is passing
away, and that we must prepare by some good deeds to meet God; that it is
time to give, to pray, to comfort--to go, like this blessed woman, and do
the work of our heavenly Saviour, Jesus, among the guilty, among the
broken-hearted, and the sick; and to labour in the deepest and darkest
wretchedness of life!'"
LADY DAVY, _n.d._--"Luttrell, before I taught him better, imagined
muffins grew!"
JEFFREY, 7_th Aug._ 1819.--There was universal complaint of the dullness
of the _Edinburgh Review_, and Sydney writes: "Too much, I admit, would
not do of my style; but the proportion in which it exists enlivens the
Review, if you appeal to the whole public, and not to the eight or ten
grave Scotchmen with whom you live."
LORD HOLLAND, 11_th June_ 1820.--"You gave me great pleasure by what you
said to the Chancellor of my honesty and independence. I sincerely
believe I shall deserve the character at your hands as long as I live."
MRS MEYNELL, 1820.--"The usual establishment for an eldest landed baby
is, two wet nurses, two ditto dry, two aunts, two physicians, two
apothecaries; three female friends of the family, unmarried, advanced in
life; and often in the nursery, one clergyman, six flatterers, and a
grandpapa! Less than this would not be decent."
MRS MEYNELL, 11_th Nov._ 1821.--"My pretensions to do well with the world
are three-fold:--First, I am fond of talking nonsense; secondly, I am
civil; thirdly, I am brief. I may be flattering myself; but if I am not,
it is not easy to get very wrong with these habits."
JOHN MURRAY [of Edinburgh], 29_th Nov._ 1821.--"How little you understand
young Wedgwood! If he appears to love waltzing, it is only to catch
fresh figures for cream-jugs. Depend upon it, he will have Jeffrey and
you upon some of his vessels, and you will enjoy an argillaceous
immortality."
This probably refers to Josiah, the grandson of the great potter.
LADY MARY BENNETT, 1_st Nov._ 1822.--"Write to me immediately: I feel it
necessary to my constitution."
LADY HOLLAND, 1_st Oct._ 1823.--"I think you mistake Bond's character in
supposing he could be influenced by partridges. He is a man of a very
independent mind, with whom pheasants at least, or perhaps turkeys, are
necessary."
LADY HOLLAND, 19_th Oct._ 1823.--"All duchesses seem agreeable to
clergymen; but she would really be a very clever, agreeable woman, if she
were married to a neighbouring vicar; and I should often call upon her."
(Apparently the Duchess of Bedford.)
MRS SYDNEY, 7_th May_ 1826.--"My two reviews are very much read, and
praised here for their fun; I read them the other night, and they made me
laugh a good deal."
MRS SYDNEY, _n.d._--In a French diligence was "a sensible man, with that
propensity which the French have for explaining things which do not
require explanation. He explained to me, for instance, what he did when
he found coffee too strong; he put water in it!"
LADY HOLLAND, 6_th Nov._ 1827.--"Jeffrey has been here with his
adjectives, who always travel with him. His throat is giving way; so
much wine goes down it, so many million words leap over it, how can it
rest? Pray make him a judge; he is a truly great man, and is very
heedless of his own interests."
LORD HOLLAND, _July_ 1828.--"I hear with great concern of your protracted
illness. I would bear the pain for you for a fortnight if I were allowed
to roar, for I cannot bear pain in silence and dignity. . . . God bless
you, dear Lord Holland! There is nobody in the world has a greater
affection for you than I have, or who hears with greater pain of your
illness."
LADY HOLLAND, _Dec._ 1828.--"I not only was never better, but never half
so well: indeed I find I have been very ill all my life, without knowing
it. Let me state some of the goods arising from abstaining from all
fermented liquors. First, sweet sleep; having never known what sweet
sleep was, I sleep like a baby or a ploughboy. . . . If I dream, it is
not of lions and tigers, but of Easter dues and tithes. . . . My
understanding is improved, and I comprehend Political Economy. I see
better without wine and spectacles than when I used both. Only one evil
ensues from it: I am in such extravagant spirits that I must lose blood,
or look out for some one who will bore and depress me."
LADY HOLLAND, _July_ 1831.--"I thank God heartily for my comfortable
situation in my old age,--above my deserts, and beyond my former hopes."
MRS MEYNELL, _Sept._ 1831.--"I am just stepping into the carriage to be
installed by the Bishop. . . . It is, I believe, a very good thing, and
puts me at my ease for life. I asked for nothing--never did anything
shabby to procure preferment. These are pleasing recollections."
(It was a Prebendal Stall at St Paul's, given to him by Lord Grey.)
COUNTESS OF MORLEY, 1831.--"I went to court, and, horrible to relate!
with strings to my shoes instead of buckles--not from Jacobinism, but
ignorance. I saw two or three Tory Lords look at me with dismay."
The Clerk of the Closet spoke to Sydney, who had to gather his sacerdotal
petticoats about him "like a lady conscious of thick ankles."
R. SHARPE, 1835.--"You have met, I hear, with an agreeable clergyman: the
existence of such a being has been hitherto denied by the naturalists;
measure him, and put down on paper what he eats."
SIR WILMOT HORTON, 1835.--"No book has appeared for a long time more
agreeable than the Life of Mackintosh; it is full of important judgments
on important men, books, and things." Elsewhere he speaks of travelling
one hundred and fifty miles in his carriage, with a green parrot and the
_Life of Mackintosh_.
MRS ---, 7_th Sept._ 1835.--"I send you a list of all the papers written
by me in the _Edinburgh Review_. Catch me, if you can, in any one
illiberal sentiment, or in any opinion which I have need to recant; and
that after twenty years scribbling upon all subjects."
COUNTESS GREY, 20_th Oct._ 1835 (Paris).--"I shall not easily forget a
_matelote_ at the Rochers de Cancale, an almond tart at Montreuil, or a
_poulet a la Tartare_ at Grignon's. These are impressions which no
changes in future life can obliterate."
MISS G. HARCOURT, 1838.--"I have no relish for the country; it is a kind
of healthy grave."
SIR GEORGE PHILIPS, about _Sept._ 1838.--"Nickleby is very good. I stood
out against Mr Dickens as long as I could, but he has conquered me."
MRS MEYNELL, _Oct._ 1839.--"I feel for --- about her son at Oxford;
knowing as I do, that the only consequences of a University education
are, the growth of vice and the waste of money."
LADY HOLLAND, 28_th Dec._ 1839.--"I have written against --- one of the
cleverest pamphlets I ever read, which I think would cover --- and him
with ridicule. At least it made me laugh very much in reading it; and
there I stood, with the printer's devil and the real devil close to me;
and then I said, 'After all, this is very funny, and very well written,
but it will give great pain to people who have been very kind and good to
me through life.'" Finally Sydney threw it into the fire.
MRS MEYNELL, _June_ 1840.--"A Canon at the opera! Where have you lived?
In what habitations of the heathen? I thank you, shuddering; and am ever
your unseducible friend."
COUNTESS GREY, 29th _Nov._ 1840.--"You never say a word of yourself, dear
Lady Grey. You have that dreadful sin of anti-egotism. When I am ill, I
mention it to all my friends and relations, to the lord lieutenant of the
county, the justices, the bishop, the churchwardens, the booksellers and
editors of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews."
LADY ASHBURTON, 1841.--"Still I can preach a little; and I wish you had
witnessed, the other day at St Paul's, my incredible boldness in
attacking the Puseyites. I told them that they made the Christian
religion a religion of postures and ceremonies, of circumflexions and
genuflexions, of garments and vestures, of ostentation and parade."
R. MURCHISON, 26_th Dec._ 1841.--"Immediately before my window there are
twelve large oranges on one tree." He adds that they are not Linnaean
orange-trees but bay-trees with oranges tied on.
LADY DAVY, 11_th Sept._ 1842.--"I have not yet discovered of what I am to
die, but I rather believe I shall be burnt alive by the Puseyites."
LADY GREY, 19_th Sept._ 1842.--"I tire of Combe Florey after two months,
and sigh for a change, even for the worse. This disposition in me is
hereditary; my father lived, within my recollection, in nineteen
different places."
LADY HOLLAND, 6_th Nov._ 1842.--Asked by her to go to opera, he replies:
"It would be rather out of etiquette for a Canon of St Paul's to go to an
opera; and where etiquette prevents me from doing things disagreeable to
myself, I am a perfect martinet."
COUNTESS GREY, 21_st Dec._ 1842.--"I am quite delighted with the
railroad. I came down in the public carriages without any fatigue. . . .
Distance is abolished--scratch that out of the catalogue of human evils."
C. DICKENS, 6_th Jan._ 1843.--"You have been so used to these sort of
impertinences that I believe you will excuse me for saying how very much
I am pleased with the first numbers of your new work. Pecksniff and his
daughters, and Pinch, are admirable--quite first-rate painting, such as
no one but yourself can execute."
"P.S.--Chuffey is admirable. I never read a finer piece of writing; it
is deeply pathetic and affecting."